chemjeff

Hi all,
I'm starting in again on a weight loss program. My goal is to lose 9 lbs. in 6 weeks. I'm 5'11", 239 lbs. right now and I'd like to get down to 230. Of course I want to lose a lot more weight but I'm setting this as my short term goal.

So, here is my strategy. Please tell me what you think.

I'm not following any specific diet, just limiting my calories and following the 75 g fat/150 g carbs/120 g protein guideline (told to me by a personal trainer). According to the website's calculator I am supposed to have a calorie deficit of 622 calories per day and consume no more than 1596 calories per day. Today I had only 1256 calories.

I'm giving up the diet soda and the artificial sweeteners.

I'm going to the gym and using the elliptical for 30 minutes a day. Today I burned 400 calories. My effort level was, for me, challenging enough, but the wattage indicator on the machine only registered 47 watts. Hmm.

I'm not terribly interested in doing weightlifting right now. For me that is an "advanced topic" that I'm not ready to dive into.

Thoughts?

bland3371

Chemjeff,

It’s do able, I was able to lose 10 lbs a month for 5 months by watching what I eat and exercise.
My poison (exercise) of choice was running, over the course of a week I would run a little over 40K in 10K chunks, in between running days I did simple low weight exercises on the machines in the gym—for me the goal was not the large numbers but number of repetitions.
If running isn’t your thing, any form of exercise would work, with the goal of getting your heart rate in the target zone for burning fat—for me that’s 141 – 161 beats/m—and maintaining that level of activity for an hour or more.
Also during that time frame, I tried to counter the I’m hungry feeling you can get when you are really dehydrated by drinking half a liter or so of water either during or after working out along with whenever I felt those mid day munchies coming on.
Good luck on achieving your goals.

chemjeff

bland,
so do you suggest I should spend an hour a day at the gym?

tandoorichicken

Jeff,

Things are only as advanced as you make them. As an example, take running. Kids do it all the time without necessarily being taught how to. Some of them are quite good at it. On the flip side, there are tons of highly technical books written about and entire university research labs devoted to studying it.

Weightlifting is like that as well: There is a lot of research, a lot of high-level competition, but way down here there's guys like me just trying to challenge themselves and get healthy in the process. Sure, I can respect that the weight room in a gym can be an intimidating place; I was at that point myself a couple years ago. But to get a good weight workout, you don't even need weights — your body itself can be your resistance at first, and your reward is as you lose weight, (a) the exercise gets easier, and (b) you can start to add in dumbbells to make up the deficit.

Couple of simple movements to get you started:
—push-ups (chest, triceps, shoulders): toes if you can, otherwise knees are fine, and if your wrists hurt do them on your fists.
—reverse lunges (quads, glutes): put your hands across your chest (easier) or on top of your head (harder). Bring one foot back and drop into a lunge, press up with your front leg, and bring your back leg forward again. Doing it this way is easier on the knees and more efficient in building muscle. Video here.
—deadlifts (lower back, glutes, hamstrings, calves): keeping your back straight and shoulders pulled-back, reach down (bending at the hips) and pick up a suitcase. Stand until you're upright, then put the suitcase down again. This builds really dense muscle in the back over time and burns TONS of fat in the process. You control how much weight goes into the bag.

wrt the rest of your plan, you're going in the right direction. Make sure you eat plenty of vegetables because they have all the "unlisted" phytochemicals that will help you burn fat in a variety of ways - cooling inflammation, zapping germs, boosting metabolism, supporting muscle and brain function, feeding gut flora etc.

Good luck!

-Nik

hpm1974

Minimising carbs after 17:00pm is good as well. What is the point of energy food at night if you are not going to use it. This definitely works for me. During the day eat carbs like oats, brown rice, wholegrain rice cakes. Drop the bread during the period that you want to loose weight. For me what you are doing at the gym is ok, but i would recommend that you do 20mins elliptical and spend even 10 mins doing push-ups, abs, and squats with your hands on the back of your head. Training your muscle groups will boost your metabolism. Remember that food is 70% and training 30%, but you cannot have PROPER success without combining the two efficiently.

chemjeff

tandoorichicken & hpm,
Thanks for your advice, but I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I can only do pushups with great difficulty, I can only manage 1 or 2. So I did some wall pushups today, I know they are not the same but they are all I can manage right now.

I tried the lunges, but balance is a big issue for me. I could only get through 3 or 4 that didn't involve staggering around and almost falling over. It is definitely harder than it looks on the video!

I guess I'm not completely opposed to weight training, but it is definitely intimidating, and I don't really know what I'm doing. Could you recommend maybe just 2 or 3 machine exercises I could do at the gym that are relatively easy to use, will do something worthwhile for me, so that I can "dip my toe in" to see how it goes?

tandoorichicken

I'm a bit biased towards free weights myself, so I like to use machines that carry over easily to free weight exercises. These are also the same machines that work the most number of muscles, or the bigger muscles in the body, like leg press machine, chest press, and lat pull-down. These machines have a tremendous carry over into the squat and deadlift; bench press and push-up; and the pull-up, respectively, once you are comfortable enough to start doing those as well. Plus, by stimulating all your major muscle groups (legs, glutes, chest, back, and arms) in just three exercises, you're increasing your ability burn more fat while saving time not using all the specialized isolation machines you also find at the gym.

Don't feel bad about the free push-ups or the lunges. At least you've got a baseline to work from, and the more you do them, the better you'll get at them. Especially with the lunges, you'll find your balance improves as your nervous systems gets used to the movement, and as long as you're getting enough protein and essential minerals, you'll build muscle and stronger joints in the process.

-Nik

Mowbry

Hi Jeff,
Start your morning with half a pink grapefruit and a glass of water, both are a great fat buster. Then 2 poached eggs, 2 lean back bacon, onions, mushroom and tomatoes. Only spray the pan with extra virgin olive oil. Try to cut back on caffine for this period. Mid morning banana or fresh pinapple. Lunch salad with chicken or fish and tsp of mayo and some pinapple for after. By mid afternoon have an apple. At tea time have no carbs so again you could have a stir fry with lots of veggies, oyster sauce and fish or chicken. Drink at least 2 litres of water during the day and never leave it more than 3 hours to eat. I go to the gym 3 times a week for 1 hour and walk my dog briskly for 45mins everyday. Pinapple and water are my secret weapon to losing weight fast for me to fit into my bikini this summer.

rpmcduff

Some great information as usual. Do pushups from your knees to make them easier. When you get stronger switch to regular pushups. Keep doing the lunges, they will get easier. Do the lunges in sets. Do 3, rest (or better do another excecise, maybe pushups) try for 3 more. Try to do 3 sets. Maybe you can only do 2 for your second set and 1 for your third. It doesn't matter in a week you may be able to do 3, 3 and 2. The idea is to improve from where you are. When you can do 3 sets of 3 increase to 3 sets of 4. Your body will adapt quickly if you ask it to. Check out Bodybuilding.com if you are intimidated by the weight room and the machines. They have lots of info on different exercises and proper form. If you belong to a gym ask for a review of all the machines and weight lifting stations. This is usually offered to new members to keep everyone safe. People that hurt themselves at the gym don't renew their memberships. Good luck on your journey!!

Haitoman

Forget the gym. 45 minute walk in the morning and again in the evening. No butter, cream or cookies/cake or pastry. No more than 2 slices of bread per day. Guaranteed 10lbs in one month.